DeMarcus Cousins, the 6-foot-11, 270-pound All Star center who hasn’t played in almost a year, is targeted to return around the time the Warriors go to Los Angeles to play the Clippers on Jan. 18 and the Lakers on Jan. 21.

“We don’t have a specific date yet,” coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday night, but “we definitely are getting a lot closer than we were.”

“All I can tell you is it’s closer now because the last week his scheduling looks much, much better,” Kerr said. “It seems to me he has gotten through a barrier, conditioning wise.”

Cousins, 28, tore his left Achilles tendon last January while playing for the New Orleans Pelicans. The typical recovery period for that injury is 8-12 months.As a result, the free-agent market for him last summer was tepid and the Warriors swooped in with a deeply discounted one-year contract for the four-time All Star with career averages of 21.5 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Cousins has scrimmaged with the Warriors in the past two weeks without any reported setbacks. Still, the Warriors stressed that Cousins needed to improve his conditioning and they did not want to rush his return.

“It’s not just a sprained ankle, knee or something where once it’s healed, you feel normal,” Kerr said. “It’s more about growing accustomed to the movement and the pounding. So that’s where we are.”

Barring a setback and assuming a Jan. 18 debut, Cousins would be eligible to play in the Warriors’ final 37 regular-season games. Although the Warriors have mostly prioritized his presence for the postseason, they want some time to integrate him onto the roster.

Kerr plans to start Cousins with the four other Warriors All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The Warriors remain intrigued about how he will incorporate his post presence and his unique skills as a passer and outside shooter, and also about his ability to adapt to the team’s fast pace of play.

“That’s been an ongoing discussion. That’s our job as a staff to figure our rotations and what sets we’d like to run,” Kerr said. “We have a decent idea on how we’d like to use DeMarcus and in what rotations. But we have to see it, too. We’ve had to play around with a lot of the rotations this year. It may not be as simple as this looks good on paper.”